A New Year brings talk of new Net rules

January 6, 1999
Web posted at: 2:06 p.m. EDT (1406 GMT)

by Elizabeth Wasserman

(IDG) -- When it comes to regulating the Internet,
the new session of Congress has a tough
act to follow. Before the House impeached
the president, Congress managed to pass a
draft of Internet-related legislation.

In fact, the last Congress passed more Net
legislation than ever before: a three-year
Internet tax moratorium, a bill recognizing
digital signatures, an extension of copyright
protections for digital works and a measure
to protect children from pornography.

This year, legislators are considering the
introduction of bills regarding consumer
privacy and protection, spam, bandwidth,
online gambling and encryption, to name a
few.

"The Internet is going to be a legislative
issue in every Congress from now on," says
Jerry Berman, executive director of the
Center for Democracy and Technology in
Washington, D.C.

Not every year will be as eventful as 1998,
though. "It will be difficult to accomplish as
much as we did last year," says Jon Englund,
senior VP of the Information Technology
Association of America in Arlington, Va. "It's
never happened before that so much
high-tech-friendly legislation passed –
although much of it was hanging in the
balance until the very end. Still, there are a
number of significant issues that need to
move in the next Congress. We may not
have the same number of bills, but the ones
we do have are extremely important."

Consumer privacy is one topic on the
agenda. Lawmakers are clamoring to address
this issue because they think it's important
to voters. Last year, Congress addressed
children's privacy and passed the Child
Online Protection Act, a measure that
requires sites to get parental consent before
collecting information from children ages 12
or younger.

As follow-up, expect legislation on privacy
for grown-ups. The Clinton administration,
led by Vice President Al Gore, has
encouraged the Internet industry to develop
voluntary guidelines to protect personal
data.

By some measures, self-regulation is
working. The nonprofit Palo Alto, Calif.,
organization TrustE, which requires members
to agree to a set of privacy principles, saw a
tenfold jump in membership last year, from
42 to 424 members. Another group, the
Online Privacy Alliance in Washington, is
backed by the biggest names on the Web.

But Congress wants proof that these
voluntary guidelines work – and House and
Senate Commerce Committee members have
bills waiting in the wings to stiffen Net
privacy protections.

Even if general privacy legislation is avoided,
the White House is reportedly interested in
encouraging separate measures to protect
medical and financial information. Sen.
Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who
cochairs the Congressional Internet Caucus,
has made protecting medical information one
of his top priorities this year.

The structure of the Federal Communications
Commission is likely to be another hot-button issue. Expect hearings
on the FCC similar to those held last year on the Internal Revenue
Service. Some observers fear such hearings could lead to discussions
of increasing Internet regulation.

"We want to make sure the FCC doesn't become the Federal Computer
Commission," says Ken Johnson, press secretary to Rep. W.J. "Billy"
Tauzin, chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications,
Trade and Consumer Protection. "All you have to do is look at the
history of regulators. Once the bureaucrats get a foot in the door,
they come rushing in. We have to prevent that creeping infection.
The quickest way to kill the Internet is to begin regulation."

Look for another round of debate surrounding Internet gambling.
Online wagering has some big-time foes – in particular, the existing
casino industry. Sen. Jon Kyl's bill to outlaw Internet gambling could
be resurrected. Likewise, antispam regulation could be reintroduced
this year, as control of unsolicited commercial e-mail – spam – is
backed politically by Internet service providers.

Another perennial issue, whether to loosen encryption export
restrictions, could get out of committee this year. Sponsors of the
Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act may introduce the
same bill they proposed last year. While the legislation hasn't
changed, the makeup of Congress has.

One staunch opponent of loosening encryption exports, Rep. Gerald
Solomon, a New York Republican who chaired the influential Rules
Committee, vowed to stand in the way of any measure coming to a
floor vote in the House unless it included provisions that gave
government access to the "keys." He has since retired, and the likely
new head of the committee, Rep. David Dreier, a California Republican,
is more sympathetic to the cause.

"The general sense is that with Gerald Solomon's retirement, a
significant obstacle has been removed," says David Sobel, counsel to
the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

At least three legislators – Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Rich Boucher,
both of Virginia, and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana – intend to
reintroduce bills to loosen encryption export restrictions.

Content regulation hasn't been settled, either. The Child Online
Protection Act, which was signed into law in October, is being
challenged in court, as was its predecessor, the Communications
Decency Act. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who chairs the
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, could
bring back a bill that would require schools and libraries to filter out
"inappropriate" material in order to get federal discounts for Net
access. The bill didn't pass the Senate last year.

McCain's committee also is expected to hold hearings on how
high-speed digital technologies will transform the way Americans live,
as well as on whether the 1996 Telecommunications Act needs to be
revised before it's implemented.

Industry lobbyists were pleasantly surprised last year by the passage
of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, which requires federal
agencies to make forms available online over a five-year period and to
recognize digital signatures. Sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham
(R.-Mich.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D.-Calif.), the measure was added to
the massive government appropriations bill at the last minute in 1998.
Supporters intend to go back for more, asking the same lawmakers to
consider extending electronic authentication to commercial
transactions, which would be considered a boost to e-commerce.